Still No Bottom in Sight for US New Home Sales

The bottom-callers continue to be disappointed today as new homes sales plunged in August to a 17 year low on a seasonally adjusted basis. From the census bureau:

NEW RESIDENTIAL SALES IN AUGUST 2008

Sales of new one-family houses in August 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 460,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This is 11.5 percent below the revised July rate of 520,000 and is 34.5 percent below the August 2007 estimate of 702,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2008 was $221,900; the average sales price was $263,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 408,000. This represents a supply of 10.9 months at the current sales rate.

On a non seasonally adjusted basis August sales were the lowest since August 1982. On the positive side the number of homes for sale is continuing to drop, although it should be noted that those numbers don't include cancellations which are still close to record levels.